Chemistry Faculty Garner Three Honors

April 30, 2014

David Christianson, Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor in Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Daniel Mindiola, Presidential Term Professor of Chemistry, have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In addition, Professor of Chemistry Madeleine Joullié will receive an honorary degree from Simmons College on May 9.

David Christianson’s research interests include the structure and mechanism of metal-requiring enzymes, terpenoid biosynthesis and metabolism, and the structural and chemical biology of arginine metabolism in human disease. He is the author of over 100 scholarly articles. He has received a citation from the Massachusetts State Senate for the Joseph P. Martin Award, served as a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge, and held fellowships with the American Asthma Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2013 he won the Repligen Award, as well as the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. He is also the founder of Arginetix, Inc.

Daniel Mindiola’s research looks for ways to to safely and inexpensively convert greenhouse gases like methane and ethane into energy sources. He is currently focusing on the role of metals in new transformations and catalytic processes. Mindiola is presently Associate Editor for Dalton Transactions (the Americas). He joined the Penn faculty in the summer of 2013.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the largest European organization devoted to the chemical sciences. Fellows are elected for their major contributions to chemical sciences.

Madelleine Joullié’s research encompasses a wide range of interests in synthetic organic chemistry, including heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry. Joullié is the author of several books and many scholarly articles. In recent years, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Chemistry Society and of the American Chemical Society, became a member of the Board of Directors of Chemical Heritage Museum, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, the Penn Annual Wyeth Lecture was renamed the Madeleine Joullié Lecture. Joullié has held a full professorship at Penn since 1975.